Speak French Like A Native

To help you to find the best way to learn French and to speak like a French person, we are continuing our series of lists of expressions (published in French Accent Magazine) that one should and should not say if one wants to speak like a French person and be understood immediately by the French.

Many of the typical mistakes made by non-native speakers are the result of translating everyday English expressions directly and literally into French. It doesn’t always work, and these common errors are what differentiate a native French speaker from a foreign French speaker. Like last time, we have carefully chosen the expressions we hear most often and that will make a difference to a French native’s ear.

1) Too much… Too many…

The French love to share a good meal and good wine, but at times you might have to stop them from giving you too much and this is where this four-letter word comes in handy: trop

As a teacher, I often hear c’est très beaucoup which really means “it’s very a lot” or I might hear c’est trop beaucoup – neither works in French, as you cannot follow trop with beaucoup.

Don’t say:C’est trop beaucoup !Say: C’est trop !

Examples:J’ai trop mangé ! = I ate too much!Il y a trop d’étudiants dans cette classe = There are too many students in this class.

2) I’m full!

Again, you’ve eaten trop and you wish to communicate politely that you’re full -what will you say? You cannot literally translate it as je suis plein – it just doesn’t work. The only time we hear that a living being is plein, is when used for an animal which is pregnant! For example, you could hear ma chienne est pleine which means that “my dog is pregnant”.

This is what French people will say:J’ai bien mangé, merci ; je n’ai plus faim = I ate a lot, thank you; I’m not hungry anymore.
Or at times you will hear je n’en peux plus which means = I can’t eat anymore of it.
The more elegant choice is the first one, indicating that you ate well shows that you’re very satisfied.

3) Can you help/assist me…?

I would like to clarify the use of the 2 verbs: assister and aider. The English may use the verb “to assist” when wanting to help someone but in French the verb assister really means to attend something like a meeting, a conference…

Therefore, in French you should only use the verb aider in this situation.

Examples:Excusez-moi Monsieur, pouvez-vous m’aider à remplir ce formulaire ? = Excuse me, Sir, could you help me fill out this form?Oui, bien sûr, je serais heureux de vous aider = Yes, of course, I would be happy to help you.
Again, assister would be used in a completely different context such as: Voulez-vous assister à la réunion d’information ? = would you like to attend the information session?

4) That’s right!

This is a difficult one as you have quite a few choices. I do hear at times c’est d’accord from our students and such an expression just may leave your French friends scratching their heads.

Here are a few different ways to express “that’s right” depending on the circumstances:
1. If you agree with someone about something, you can say:C’est ça ! Exactement !
C’est vrai !

Examples:Je trouve qu’il y a trop de chefs dans cette cuisine ! = I think there are too many cooks in this kitchen!Exactement, il y en a trop ! = That’s right, there are too many of them!
Or you could hear:C’est ça, il y en a trop !C’est vrai, il y en a trop !

2. If you reply to someone’s question positively, you have a few choices:C’est juste ! En effet ! C’est correct !

5) To support

The verb supporter is a typical false friend; the meaning is completely different from the English verb. Supporter means “to stand something, a situation or a person.”

To support someone, an idea or a project, the verb you would need to use is soutenir. It is conjugated in the present tense the same way as tenir: je soutiens, tu soutiens, il soutient, nous soutenons, etc.

6) Par hasard

Here is another false friend! In French the word hasard has nothing to do with the English version of “hazard”. When something is hazardous, we use the word dangereux.

In French, par hasard is often used and it expresses “by chance” or “by accident” when you come across a person you know unexpectedly or if you’re asking someone if they happen to have something you need.

Note that par accident is not expressed in this type of situation like in English. Par accident is used when you did something negative by accident!

7) La monnaie svp !

If a French person comes up to you and asks you: Excusez-moi, mais est-ce que vous avez la monnaie pour un billet de 20 euros ? – don’t misunderstand this person thinking he’s asking or begging for money; he’s asking for some small change for his bill.

The French word monnaie is used for 2 purposes:
-small change;
-money currency.

If you wish to speak about money in general, then you would use the French word argent (which also means silver). The verb changer in a money context is only used in the situation where one wishes to exchange currency!Don’t say:Est-ce que vous avez du change pour 20 euros ?Say:Est-ce que vous avez de la monnaie de 20 euros ?

8) L’endroit, not la place

It is so difficult to stop using la place when we are speaking about places in general. It seems unfair that we cannot use it the same way we do in English!

Note that la place in French is used mainly:
-to indicate a specific place for an object or a seat on a train, bus, etc.;
-to indicate the square in a city such as la Place du Marché;
-to show a person’s place in society.

Examples:La maison est dans un endroit magnifique ! = The house is in a beautiful place!Quel est ton endroit préféré dans le monde ? = What is your favorite place in the world?Cette place est occupée, Madame ? = Is that seat taken, Madam?Voici la place de la télé ! = Here is the place for the TV! Note that you can also use endroit in this example.Ce n’est pas ta place ici ! = this is not your place here!

9) La librairie

To finish this list (for now), I want to discuss this well known false friend!

Librairie does not mean “library” but it means “bookstore”.

If you wish to say “library”, then you will need to use the word bibliothèque.